Can you sue your university for fraud, breach of contract or other claims based on violations of academic integrity? Because anyone can sue anyone for anything, the critical legal question is whether you can successfully sue the university on these contentions.

All lawsuits are premised on allegations that the defendant has breached a legal duty or obligation to the claimant. Universities are typically obligated to their students by provisions of law or by contract. If there is a law that you claim the university has breached and thereby caused damage to you, you can sue for that violation. These kinds of claims are not often successful because the laws governing the performance of universities and colleges are very general and are not intended for identifying specific obligations to students.

More typically students contend that a college or university has damaged the student by the failure to honor various contractual obligations. The student-school contract is ordinarily made up of the enrollment and admission materials and the rules and regulations of the school. But, if you review those materials carefully, you will almost inevitably find that the university has expressly and explicitly retained the right to depart from its regular rules and regs whenever the school in its judgment determines such departure or deviation to be necessary or prudent.

It is very unlikely that you can make a successful claim that the university owed you a contractual duty of academic support and breached that duty. Usually, there are too many factors of intervening student conduct and performance to enable proof on this kind of allegation. Also, courts traditionally honor a "hands-off" practice about matters pertaining to "academic affairs" because courts do not see the legal system as the place for disputes about grades or completion of degree requirements. These issues will almost always be left to the discretion and determination of the school.

As to the promises that you contend were not delivered on, you will need to be specific. Merely alleging such conduct doesn't come close to meeting the standard for a successful legal claim. If you have in mind omissions of performance such as reductions of course offerings, it is almost always the case that there is "contract" language which reserves to the school the right to make changes based on factors that the school considers important, such as enrollment rates or faculty availability. In practice, there are few specific omissions of performance that will enable a successful claim of breach of performance against a college or university.

Violating the student handbook is a sound theory of breach of contract except that the handbook will explicitly state that the university may do so when it chooses or thinks necessary-- so that is almost never a productive claim for the student.

If your university was a private school, rather than a public one, the legal prospects for a successful claim are even less promising.

If your tuition was paid by student loans, and not directly by you, the matter becomes even more complicated -- and unpromising for you -- because the lenders are not responsible for any breaches of the university's obligations to you. Your financial liability to the lenders will not be cancelled or diminished by claims of breach of contract by the university.

You should consult with a skilled and experienced attorney about the specifics of your claim. It is unfortunate that the overall message here is not encouraging. In fact, students are very inadequately served by the balance of legal rights in these circumstances.

No legal advice here.
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